.243 Winchester

The .243 Winchester, also called 6x52mm, is a sporting rifle cartridge that Winchester introduced in 1955 for its Model 70 bolt-action and Model 88 lever-action rifles. It is the .308 Winchester case necked down to take .243 inch bullets, a layout popularized by the Field and Stream editor Warren Page, who had wildcatted such a round since the 1940s. Light recoil and high velocity made it a favorite for deer, pronghorn and varmint hunting and for target and metallic silhouette shooting. In the United Kingdom it has long been seen as the entry level caliber for legal deer stalking under the Deer Act 1963 bullet diameter minimum. The Remington .244, a necked down .257 Roberts introduced the same year, never matched its popularity. The source article treats it as a hunting and target round rather than a military one.